What if hope is… action?

Quick update before I do a bit of reflection- I am currently at my first camp of the summer in Florida. I have been overwhelmed with the hospitality, but also the immediate connections I’ve had with other counselors, staff, and campers. These are all super awesome people here at Silver Springs and I’m grateful to begin my summer with them.

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So, the theme for today’s curriculum is “What if hope is real?” and the scripture assigned to this theme is Mark 2:1-5, the story of the paralytic and Jesus healing him. As we had some discussion during small group today, we began talking about looking at this story from different perspectives- the perspective of Jesus, that of the man being lowered into this building, and the people who took him to Jesus. This story is an example of hope in many ways- of Jesus being our hope, of having hope and trust in others, and BEING the hope that others need. This story not only shows us the hope we have with Jesus, but also that hope requires action and determination by people who care deeply and are passionate. The people who carried this man had to allow him to put all his hope in them. They had to take action in a way that was hard and dirty and may not have seemed logical.

Hope is not just praying to be better, but an ACTIVE process. I think about how this applies to the issues in the world our generation and these kids’ generation are faced with. It is incredibly easy to feel so bogged down by the pain and injustice and “to become numb to it all” as one camper put it. BUT instead, there are high school students putting action into their hope. Let us feel, not a burden or a weight, but a responsibility to do better for our world- And with that responsibility, immense hope, empowerment, and joy. Though the struggles that we face may lead us to despair, our conversations about them lead to relationships which can do nothing but build us up.

It’s only Tuesday of my first camp, you guys, this stuff is deep.

I leave you with this prayer which was first presented by Cardinal Dearden in 1979 and quoted by Pope Francis in 2015.

It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.

The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificententerprise that is God’s work.

Nothing we do is complete, which is a way ofsaying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us.

No statement says all that could be said.

No prayer fully expresses our faith.

No confession brings perfection.

No pastoral visit brings wholeness.

No program accomplishes the Church’s mission.

No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about.

We plant the seeds that one day will grow.

We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development.

We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.

This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.

It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, anopportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the masterbuilder and the worker.